A Date To Remember
by DoctorWhodunit
Summary: For a first date, the word "perfect" fit like Cinderella's glass shoe. Unfortunately, Natsu was not Cinderella, this date was not as cheesy as the old school Disney movie, and frankly, it would be difficult for anybody to consider what happened as a date. Modern AU. Nalu. Implied Gajevy, Gruvia and Elfgreen. Oneshot.


One night, Natsu finally worked up the courage to ask Lucy out on a date. He did it over the phone, even though he hung out with her on campus all day. At least he did it, she sounded joyful when she accepted, he could be smug about this one thing at least.

The day after, Natsu managed not to hit the snooze button when his phone woke him up, he was excited enough about this date to be able to get a control over his laziness. He didn't exactly live up to the meaning of his name, __Summer__ , even though he was as hot-blooded as the rising sun during a summer morning, he most of the time arose at the latest hours. However, he lived up to his name in some way by staying up late.

After putting on some casual clothes because he didn't want to make a big deal out of it, he walked to his usual parking spot and stepped in his car, only to find out that it broke down. Nothing could be done, he couldn't figure out what was wrong and could not waste any more time if he didn't want to be late on his first date. He had to run for it.

They had planned to go to the amusement park that opened recently, and Lucy was already waiting for him at the entrance, she arrived five minutes early. After waiting for thirty minutes, Lucy was more worried than annoyed so she decided to call him to check if he was okay. No answer. She had just remembered that Natsu wasn't fond of phones, he often said that he couldn't move freely with that thing in his pocket so he always left it at home. "Sigh, just put it inside your jacket," she often told him.

Still, she stayed for him, she knew he wouldn't let her down considering that he was the one who asked her out. Lucy thought of Natsu as one of her best friends, he was always supportive of her choices, always there to take care of her in moments of need, always there to enlighten her life with his dorky face. Plus, she couldn't deny that she was attracted to him, the dude was hot, but she never dared asking him out on a date because no matter how cliché it sounded to her, she didn't want to spoil their friendship. Despite all this, Lucy couldn't have been happier when Natsu called her the night before, she was shocked but pleased nonetheless. Trying things out didn't seem like a bad idea after all, and even if it was, it was Natsu that instigated everything, it couldn't be her fault if things were to go wrong.

After a few more minutes, Lucy recognized Natsu's figure in the distance, he looked fine, in any sense of the word. As he crossed the street, she noticed that his clothes were rather casual, a simple pair of blue jeans and a plain black V neck t-shirt. The t-shirt embraced his muscular body in the most perfect way and Lucy had a hard time trying not to ogle at him.

"Yo, Lucy!" He called, waving at her from the crosswalk. Lucy stuffed her phone in her purse and smiled at him when he got in front of her. "I'm really sorry for the wait, my car broke down so I had to run from my place to here," he explained, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Oh, that's too bad! Don't worry about me though, I didn't wait that long," she said, offering him a calming smile. She glanced at him from head to toes and frowned, "You ran all the way here and you're not even sweaty," she remarked, taking the opportunity to ogle at him without looking like she was actually ogling at him.

"Oh, you know how athletic I am, that wasn't much for me," he bragged, winking at her disbelieving face. "I made us waste enough time already, let's go," he said, starting to lead the way as he stuck his hand out to her. Lucy looked confused and didn't know what she had to do, after an awkward two seconds filled with nothingness, Natsu just grabbed her wrist and pulled gently. "Come on," he cheered.

In truth, Natsu didn't run all the way without sweating. When he realized his car broke down, he removed his shirt and knotted it around his waist. He ran shirtless for more than thirty minutes, getting weird looks from some people, but also a ton of lustful looks from a lot of girls he passed by. When he saw that he was near the amusement park, he stopped and walked in a store, he went to the bathroom and used the water to wash his face, and managed to wipe the water off his face with a lot of toilet paper. Then, he bought some deodorant and used it before even leaving the store, still shirtless, he didn't have time to care about the looks he got from the customers. No sweat, check. Nice smell, check. Everything was fine, all he had to do was to put his t-shirt back on and throw away the deodorant because he couldn't keep it and hide it at the same time. At the end, he just walked fast to the entrance of the amusement park and apologized for being late, without telling her how much trouble he went through to get there and how much effort it took him to show himself nice and clean.

Unfortunately, their little moment in the amusement park had to be cut short because of health and safety issues. Indeed, Natsu and Lucy decided to start with a rather massive and loopy roller coaster, it seemed fun and Lucy was in the mood for thrills. They waited in line for quite a while and kept themselves busy by chatting like they usually did, it didn't have to feel too weird after all. Friends, college, anecdotes, they didn't stop talking until they could get in the ride. When they could finally jump in the roller coaster train, they both sat next to each other and listened to the verbal instructions given by the ride operator. Before the ride started, they both looked at each other with obvious excitement and grinned the same way they always did when a new experience was about to start.

But then the ride started.

Natsu felt an uneasiness awakening around his belly, an uneasiness that quickly transformed into a violent need of puking. As the train went up the roller coaster, he realized that he forgot to change his motion sickness patch, he'd had the same one for more than a week, it didn't work anymore.

"Get me off that thing!" Natsu shouted, before muffling his mouth in his hand.

"Eh? Natsu, what's happening? Is it your mot- Did you forget your motion sickness patch!?" Natsu could only nod. "They can't stop it, it already started, you'll have to hang in there, I'm really sor-" Her sentence was interrupted by the sudden acceleration the train made as it took a violent right turn, making her clutch her hands to the side bars, still worrying for Natsu.

It only lasted four minutes, but those four minutes were the longest Natsu had lived. He couldn't count how many loops he had to go through, he didn't even know if he was going to be able to make it out alive. Even though he had motion sickness, he had been wearing those patches for quite a while, he wasn't cured but he slowly got used to the motion of the different means of transportation, that made him able not to vomit during the ride. __Selfish bastard, just let me out already,__ his breakfast thought, probably.

When they got off the ride, Lucy hastily ran to the pale and dizzy Natsu, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and walked him to the nearest bench. Natsu couldn't utter a single word without feeling like he was going to let everything out. Lucy shoved her hand in her purse, grabbed a small bottle of water and handed it to him.

"Here, have some, it'll hopefully make you feel better," she said, giving him a genuine affectionate smile, the one that Natsu received the most.

"T-thank you, Lucy," he stuttered, with a weak and shattered voice. He gulped half of the small bottle in a few seconds and gave it back to her. He didn't feel better immediately, in fact, he felt his stomach grumble and his head started to ache.

Aware that they were going to be sitting on this bench for quite some time, Lucy wrapped her arm around his shoulder, caressed the side of his cheek for half a second, and pulled his face towards her shoulder, so he could rest on it. Natsu didn't openly react to her gesture, but he felt as if healing creatures fluttered around in his weakened body. The warmth of her bare shoulder on his cheek and the lavender scent of her light golden blonde hair were so very soothing, and for one long and shining moment, she became his peaceful place.

After twenty minutes of blissful physical proximity, Natsu could feel his body gain back its original strenght. He didn't want to be any more of a bother to Lucy so he gently removed his head from her shoulder and stretched out the soreness of his body.

Lucy contemplated his face with a tender and relieved smile. "Feelin' better?"

"Way better, thank you, Lucy," he said, as he mirrored her smile, however, this one hid a hint of guilt.

"How about we get out of here?"

"Eh? Why?"

"Well, it's not like you can go and ride another roller coaster, can you?"

"But... you don't wanna do other rides anymore?" He asked, worried.

"It wouldn't be fun if you weren't next to me," she whispered.

"Uh-"

"So," she interrupted, "how about we go somewhere else, huh? Any ideas?" She asked, looking cheerful at the idea of doing something else with Natsu.

"Um... I'm kinda hungry to be honest," he said with a sheepish expression, scratching the back of his head.

Lucy laughed on the spot, she couldn't believe that he was already hungry considering what happened to his stomach a few minutes earlier. "That's so like you," she chortled, "what do you propose then?"

"Restaurant?"

"Oh, fancy!" She blurted. She cocked her head to the left and smiled, eyes closed, "Sounds good to me."

Natsu felt a little dizzy for a few seconds as he got out of the amusement park, Lucy walked right next to him, ready to catch him if he were to falter. They decided to go in a restaurant near the amusement park, Lucy knew he couldn't walk too much in his state, and she also knew that they would have to walk home instead of taking the bus, so they tried not to pick a restaurant too far away.

They settled for an Italian restaurant five minutes away from the amusement park, and when they entered, Natsu had the bad surprise of recognizing people he knew. Too many people he knew and didn't necessarily wanted to talk to at this moment.

"Ah, Lucy! Natsu! Over here!"

Lucy turned her head in the direction of the familiar voice and saw a blue-haired girl waving at her. "Ah! Look, Natsu! It's Levy," she blurted, tapping Natsu on the shoulder with one hand and pointing at her with the other.

"Oh, great," he muttered. Levy was not so much what bothered Natsu, he got along with her just fine since she was Lucy's best friend, but what made him roll his eyes were the people she was sitting with.

"Damn it, what the hell are you doin' here?"

"Oh, that's my man, Natsu, how are you doing?"

Gray and Elfman. They were all in college with them, he liked Elfman but couldn't stand Gray. In the contrary, Lucy often found the relationship between Natsu and Gray rather funny, she doesn't feel like they hate each other. Since they couldn't just ignore them – even though Natsu would have loved to – they went and sat at their round table.

"Hey," Lucy greeted, "now that's funny, what are you all doing here?"

"I got here last and I saw Levy and Elfman at the same table so I just thought I'd go talk to them until my date comes."

"Pft, 'cause __you__ 've got a date, yeah right," Natsu snickered.

Gray glared at him with a mix of anger and utter annoyance. "Damn right I do! How about you? How long are you gonna stay single?" He retorted, with a proud smirk on his face.

Natsu looked down and didn't answer for a few seconds, Gray eyed him with a mix of worry and confusion, he didn't talk back, that was unusual.

"Well," Lucy started as she cleared her throat, "I am his date," she revealed, rubbing the back of her head, much like Natsu always did.

"No way!" They chorused.

"Oi! Is it __that__ difficult to imagine she's my date?" He asked, offended by the disbelief he perceived from the three of them.

"It's not that, Natsu," Levy snorted, "it's just... finally, you know?" She said, smiling tenderly at the blonde.

"Finally?"

"We had bet on how long it'd take you to ask her out," Elfman said, unable to contain his glee, "you asked her out, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's my man, I knew you'd manage to do it!" He turned and smirked to Gray, "By the way, you owe fifty bucks."

"Tch, can't I just pay you the meal you'll have with Evergreen?" Gray asked, annoyed to have lost that much on a stupid bet.

"No, I already have the money for that, I need currency."

"But if I pay your meal you'll still have your money, the one you didn't spend, it's the same thing!"

"Act like a man and give me my money!"

"Alright, calm down Li Shang," he snapped. He grabbed his wallet and took his time before giving him his fifty bucks, thirty-five of them in coins, "Here you go." He had to give him money, might as well have fun doing it.

"Hey, Frosty," Natsu interrupted, before Elfman could protest, "how long did you think it'd take me?"

"At least four years," he snorted, "looks like I underestimated you."

"And I said less than two years," Elfman added, "it took a year and a half in the end, told you it wouldn't take that long, Gray!" This comment made the girls chuckle, a year and a half was still a lot.

The waiter put an end to their conversation and asked what they wanted to eat. Levy, Gray and Elfman explained to him that they were waiting for their dates to come, so only Natsu and Lucy were going to eat at the moment. They glanced at each other and told the waiter that they would take some bruschetta pizzaiola. The waiter smiled at them and told them some were already ready, he could just go in the kitchen and come back with them in less than a minute.

"Talk about rapid service, sounds good," Natsu cheered, already forgetting about Gray's lack of hope considering his love life.

"Bruschetta pizzaiola," Levy said under her breath, lifting her thumb to her lips, "if I remember well, those are just appetizers, why d-" She interrupted herself and looked up at Lucy, from her eyes alone, she understood. "Oh," she breathed.

"Ah, yeah, we didn't plan on staying long, we have other plans, we just wanted to nibble a bit before going... where we want to go," Lucy lied, targetting more the other two males than Levy who seemed to know that it was because she wanted to be alone with him, have some intimacy, something that was impossible here, especially with Gray and Elfman.

In this short amount of time, the waiter came back with their plates of bruschetta pizzaiola, which consisted of sliced loafs of bread with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil and a handful of fresh basil on top of them.

"Thank you!" Natsu and Lucy chorused. Natsu gave immediately the money to the waiter, he didn't want to waste any time.

"Oh, I have to go to the bathroom," Levy said, she stood up then turned to Lucy and whispered, "you know, for..." Lucy gave her an understanding sigh and nodded.

As she left, Natsu had already started to eat his part of the plate, he was hungry, yes, but his urge to get out of this restaurant was transparent, he didn't even try to fool anybody. Seeing that, Gray decided to attack as fast as possible.

"So," he started, leaning on the table as he put an elbow on it, "you guys have plans, huh? What kind?" He asked with a mischievous smile.

Natsu almost choked on his bread. "Wha- What d'you mean?" He stammered, punching his torso.

"Well, what are you guys gonna do?" He reworded.

"Y'know, just, stuffs, lik- it's not like you need to know anyway!" He snapped.

"Alright, smells fishy if you ask me," he snickered.

Natsu blinked, but Lucy's cheeks got almost as red as the cherry tomato she was eating. She knew what he implied and his face showed how proud he was of his innuendo.

"Don't worry about it, Lucy," Elfman said, "you've got nothing to worry about, especially with Natsu, I saw it, it's pretty impressive, I even call __it__ Manly," he boasted, as if he was talking about himself.

" _ _It__? Manly? What are you talking about?" Lucy asked, even though she had an idea.

"His d-"

"Nothing!" Natsu yelled, getting the attention of the whole restaurant. He quickly apologized to the customers after an awkward silence. "Nothing, don't pay attention to him, Lucy."

Lucy had a clear idea of what Elfman was talking about but she judged wise not to bring it up ever again, not now at least. Lucy managed to change the conversation topic for a few minutes as they ate the last bits they had on their plate.

"Oh, look! We finished eating," Natsu exclaimed, pointing at the empty plate. He turned his head around and saw the blue-haired girl coming out of the bathroom, "Oh, look! Levy's coming back!" He exclaimed once more, with a slightly high-pitched voice. "Talk about timing, huh? We better go, right, Lucy?"

"Oh, yes, sure, I guess we don't have anything else to do here, and their date might be coming soon." She turned to Gray and Elfman, "We'll let you have fun now."

"Oh, you're already leaving?" Levy asked, as she walked up to them.

"Yeah, you know, we have other plans," Lucy reminded her.

"Oh, right! I'll go outside with you then, Gajeel texted me saying that he would arrive very soon."

"Okay, no problem," Lucy answered. "Well, goodbye Gray, goodbye Elfman, it was nice to talk to you," she said politely.

"Bye, Lucy! Bye, Natsu!" Elfman said, waving at them.

"Bye, you kids go have fun," Gray said, keeping his mischievous smile until the end.

"Yeah, see ya," Natsu muttered.

As they walked to the entrance, Lucy turned around one last time and saw another blue-haired girl walking up to Gray, she found her gorgeous, __probably his date__ , she thought, __attaboy__.

When they opened the door, Natsu swore he was cursed as a drop of water fell on his pink hair. It was raining, and it wasn't just a drizzle. It took only a few seconds for them to be all soaking wet. Levy stayed inside though, in front of the entrance. As Natsu was about to curse the entire world, Levy recognized Gajeel's car, a gray Fiat. Indeed, he stepped out of the car and saw Natsu and Lucy.

"The hell are y-"

"Gajeel!" Levy shouted, interrupting him, "I told you to bring an umbrella, do you have it?"

"Yeah!"

"Give it to them, they can't take the bus!"

"Tch, so that wasn't for us!?"

"It was, but they need it more than we do, we're going to my place with your car afterwards anyway!"

Gajeel rolled his eyes and took the plain black umbrella on the passenger seat. He then ran to the entrance with his arm over his head to cover from the rain. Without even greeting them, he past by them and left the umbrella in Natsu's hands in the process.

"Thank you so much!" Lucy exclaimed.

"No problem," Levy answered, "bye guys!"

"Bye Levy!" They chorused, as they watched them go back inside the restaurant.

"Gajeel, you know you could have just opened the umbrella instead of running here with your arm over you head, right?"

They didn't hear his answer, and Natsu immediately opened the umbrella and held it up over their heads.

"Thank you, Natsu," she breathed.

He cocked his head on the side and smiled. "No problem."

Natsu led the way and Lucy quickly followed him to stay by his side, under the umbrella. They passed by a few people, some had umbrellas, some were running with a bag over their heads, some didn't have anything and didn't seem to care, it was your casual sudden rainy day.

"Hey," Lucy broke the silence, "I often hear you referring to Gray as Frosty, why?"

"Oh, that? It fits him, the dude's addicted to ice cream," he snorted. "I was kinda proud when I came up with this nickname."

"Oh, that's good!" She blurted, laughing along with him.

After this moment of laughter, they didn't talk for a while, too busy appreciating the crackling of raindrops falling on the umbrella and the feeling of a one's shoulder brushing the other's because of their body's natural pursuit of the closest heat source. Natsu's left side of his hair started to get wet again, making his spiky hair falter because of the dampness the rain created in it, but he couldn't care less, he was more focused on protecting Lucy than himself. It was just water, yes, but it was a small gesture Natsu was glad to be able to do, he always loved helping her, and he thought maybe it could lessen her disappointment.

"Look, Lucy," Natsu said, breaking the silence once again, "I'm sorry."

"Eh?"

"I'm sorry I was late. I'm sorry I forgot to change my motion sickness patch. I'm sorry you had to stay with me on this bench. I'm sorry you had to put up with Gray and Elfman. I'm sorry it's raining. I'm sorry this first date sucked... I'm so sorry."

Lucy stopped, and so did Natsu, but he couldn't look at her in the eye. For a few seconds, everything went silent, only the rain could be heard, Natsu thought for a moment he was going to turn deaf if it went on like this. As for Lucy, she relaxed, and smiled at him, even though he couldn't look at her.

"Sigh, why are you apologizing? None of this was your fault. Well, okay, maybe forgetting to change your motion sickness patch was your fault, but other than that, you're not at fault."

"Yeah, b-"

"Hey," she whispered, with a sudden soothing voice, "as much as I don't like seeing you sick, it was refreshing to have you rest on my shoulder." She looked down with a melancholic smile on her face, moved a little bit closer to him and wrapped her arm around his, lowering the umbrella, leaving them under the pouring rain. Natsu could only face her and contemplate her loving smile. "Please, rely on me, because I always rely on you..."

"Lucy..."

"And this date didn't suck!" She cheered, suddenly changing the mood of the conversation, "We can still have fun now, if you want," she suggested.

Natsu blinked. "Oh, how?"

Lucy's eyes looked away and he noticed her flushed cheeks. She couldn't believe she was about to do this. In less than five seconds, she let go of Natsu's arm, went right in front of him, put her hands on his shoulders, took a deep silent breath and closed her eyes.

Natsu's mind had a hard time processing what was happening. __A kiss? Is that it? Is she gonna kiss me? But why though? Because it's raining? Hold on, hold on, wait a minute, just let me- Oh! No. Yes! No... Think it through... Alright! Okay! Shutdown!__ Natsu had no idea what to do, so he just mirrored what she did, he closed his eyes as well.

A second later, nothing.

Two seconds later, nothing.

Three seconds later, something. He felt her fingertips sliding away from his shoulders. Wondering why he couldn't feel her lips on his, he opened his eyes, and witnessed something he would never forget. The kind of thing he would tell his grandkids about. Lucy was moving backwards without her feet leaving the ground.

"Are you... moonwalking?" Natsu asked, frowning in disbelief.

"Yep, don't laugh, okay? I've practiced a lot and I'm sure it's looking pretty good!"

Natsu laughed at himself, he couldn't believe he thought she was going to kiss him now. Seeing her perform her so-called moonwalk made him smile like there was no tomorrow, she looked so happy.

"Ha, let me show what a true moonwalk looks like!" He bragged, as he closed the umbrella. He turned her back to her and moved backwards in her direction. Lucy couldn't control her peal of laughter, she even put her arms under her chest and bent over because of how much fun she was having watching him.

"That's not how you moonwalk! Did you even practice?" She blurted, still laughing.

Natsu laughed along with her. "Nope, to be honest, I just thought it was easy to do." He answered, scratching the back of his head. "It's more complicated than I thought," he laughed.

A dreamy smile bloomed on Lucy's dripping wet face. "Now that's better," she breathed, "now that's the Natsu I know!"

"Can I say I'm sorry for feeling so sorry earlier?" he asked, biting his lip.

"Sure, you can! Oh, you know what? I've got some other sick moves for you," she bragged.

"Bring it on! I can't moonwalk, but I've got some dance moves I never showed anyone, you're gonna lose," he snapped, totally enjoying the game.

She took her phone out of her purse and started to play some hip-hop music. "We'll see about that." She winked, with an air of defiance.

"Game on!" They shouted.

 _ _Let's not move too fast, that would have been taking advantage of the situation__ , they thought. It was just their first date, they didn't have to feel so nervous, they didn't have to feel weird about it. She was still the same person, he was still the same person, Natsu took a long time to realize it. Lucy's calm and cheerful aura appeased him, he knew he could relax. They kept dancing and singing in the rain until they arrived at her place, and she left him with a kiss on the cheek. That was all they needed, they already loved each other's company, it could only go well from there.

Needless to say, they were both sick the next day.

* * *

 **A/N: Here I am with my first Nalu story! When I thought about it the first time, it was supposed to be a drabble, then one thing led to another and... here were are. I have to say, I'm proud of what I did with this story, I had so much fun writing it. It was my first time writing Gray and Elfman, I hope they're not out of character. Please, tell me what you thought about it, it would mean the world to me :)**


End file.
